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History

The Soweto Youth Uprising

November 21, 2016

The Soweto uprising of 1976 marked the beginning of the end for Apartheid in South Africa. The southwestern district of Johannesburg symbolized the fight against racial segregation in South Africa like no other.

https://p.dw.com/p/2T01G
Image: Phoenix, ZDF

The so-called student uprising that took place there in 1976 marked the beginning of the end of apartheid. But have the dreams, hopes and ambitions from that era been fulfilled? Dozens of people were killed. Twelve-year-old Hector Pieterson became a symbol of this uprising. The photo of the boy dying in the arms of a man with his sister running beside him went around the world. In the end, what did the victims in the fight for freedom actually give their lives for? We meet people who witnessed the events back then, as well as students of today. We talk to start-up company founders and people stricken by poverty who still live in the slums. Soweto may be a legendary place in history, but it still harbors a dangerous amount of social dynamite.